Different World
by ChasingVisions
Summary: Elene had never felt comfortable in her own body. Constantly at odds with herself, she'd buried herself in her books, and had had no idea that anything about her was at all out of the ordinary- until she came across Natsu during a fit of restlessness.
1. Chapter 1

Sometimes I feel like I'm not of this world.

No, not sometimes- I often felt this way. It was not a nice feeling. I wondered if it was normal for people to feel this way, and figured it was. I guess it's normal that I can feel every pore in my body itching for release, flooded with blood, yet thirsting. I suppose it's not out of the ordinary to feel like my body is wrong in every way, to feel unable to inadequate, unable to express myself.

I at least knew the latter was normal. It was a common teenaged complaint, and teenaged was what I was.

Normal fourteen year old girl. Yup. I had my eccentricities, as all men and women did. I felt mildly at peace, sequestered in my room, surrounded by books. I didn't feel quite so misunderstood or alone in my books, where I could envelop myself in someone else's thoughts, feelings, problems.

Someone else's world.

I was content as I was. I sat with my back against the headboard of my broad bed, legs tugged up against my chest, two sheets draped over a hanging wire to create a rough tent. Light dashed itself against the opaqueness of the sheets and struggled through, showing the minute dust molecules drifting aimlessly in front of the pages of my book.

It was a favourite of mine. The characters were friends, companions that leaped off of the pages. As I understood them, they understood me; I had accepted them into my heart, and they dwelt within my mind. How could they not?

But I was restless. I shifted slightly, my legs buzzing with energy. I frowned. I was normally lethargic, constantly tired. Where was the energy coming from? It was unnerving, but I was having trouble ignoring it. It felt kind of like the itch in my skin was turning into a rise of tightly restrained power. It was extraordinarily uncomfortable.

Unable to help myself, I scrambled to the end of the bed and stood, quickly dressing in something technically presentable but not really; faded sweat pants and a baggy shirt. I sat at the top of the stairs and thrust my feet into mismatch socks, one orange and one blue, before storming the door that led outside.

"Dad!" I yelled through the house, fitting my feet into my runners. "I'm going for a walk for a couple minutes."

"Okay, sweetie," my dad confirmed from the basement. Nodding, though no one could see me, I opened the door and promptly began to run.

Now let my say this bluntly: I don't run. It's not that I'm not fast; I have a pretty good top speed. It's just that it feels awkward and it doesn't take long for me to feel like _something's_ wrong and to make my feel like I'm about to fall on my face. This time it was my back, feeling as if it was hyper arched, not quite write. I braced my abs against it, sucking in great breaths as my weak body strained to keep the speed.

The feeling of blocked power built into a crescendo, and I gritted my teeth, pushing my feet into the ground with such force that I imagined my feet sinking into the pale grey of the sidewalk.

The suburban houses blurred, carefully tended gardens and overgrown weeds and everything in between colliding in a riot of nonsensical life. On an impulse, I abruptly changed directions, ricocheting like a loose cannon burst off course into the park woods on my right.

And abruptly came to a stop, mulch flying as I dug my heels and toes into the ground, trying _not_ to slam headlong into the man, or boy, I guess, on the path in front of me.

My face burned, even though I didn't feel particularly embarrassed. The boy, whose hair was dyed pink (weird choice), narrowed his eyes at me. He sniffed the air experimentally, and frowned, his face absurdly young looking, despite it's handsomeness. I don't know what it was about him that was distinctly naive, but he sure didn't seem all that mature to me. Maybe it was that he was sniffing the air like a dog. I tried to walk calmly around him, smiling half-apologetically, but he rounded on me, and said, "You smell funny."

I stared at him. How was I supposed to respond to _that?_ A pink haired stranger had just said I _smelled_ funny.

"Well gee, thanks," I said finally, the words slipping ineloquently from my mouth.

The boy didn't say anything, but crossed his arms, which drew attention to his clothing. My focus had been mainly on his unruly pink hair, but I now noticed his attire wasn't any less strange. He wore a thin, dark blue and yellow-gold vest with nothing but bare chest and muscle beneath. I distracted myself from the finely toned muscles, which were really quite disconcerting, by realizing that his pants were knee length white pants that twisted somewhat so that they resembled the clothes of a foreign prince or something. Over that, even, he wore a skirt-like thing, dark blue with yellow trim, like his vest, that split over one thigh.

Well, he was certainly an oddball.

He grinned suddenly, such a fierce, mischievous grin that I took a mistrustful step backwards. He seemed to come to a decision.

"I'm Natsu," he claimed audaciously, stabbing himself in the chest with his thumb as he gestured to himself. _Yes, I know what "I," means, but thank you for the demonstration_. "And you're coming with me!"


	2. Chapter 2

"Hey!" I yelped, smacking his hand as it latched on to my arm. "No I'm not!"

"Ow," the boy, Natsu, said, letting go and looking at his hand, which was turning red. "What'd you do that for?"

"You grabbed me," I notified him, wondering just how stupid this guy was. "And I have no idea who you are."

I didn't mention that I hated it when _anyone_ touched me- let alone some creeper of a stranger.

"What's the problem with that?" he complained, annoyed. "And why do you smell like Earthland?"

"Earth land?" I asked, looking around, as if the forest greenery would supply an antidote to the confusion of this situation. "Isn't that, you know, redundant?"

"No, Earthland's a place you dummy," he said, as if this should have been immediately obvious. Then he stopped, and turned around, frowning. "Hey, where'd Happy go? Happy!"

I was now seriously considering bolting. Wasn't happy an emotion? How can it _go_ anywhere. However, and decision making was successfully stalled when what looked like a flying blue cat winged around the corner into the woods. He had a hotdog clamped between two furry blue paws, and was _smiling_.

I nearly collapsed.

"Oh, there you are little buddy!" Natsu said, grinning. "Hey, what's that? Can I have some?"

"No way," Happy said, his voice petulant, swooping higher above Natsu's head, "it's mine! I found it."

"Aww, that's no fair."

It appeared that he'd forgotten me, so I turned around and started to speed walk deeper into the park, the mulch cushioning my footfalls. While they continued to argue like two kindergartens, my brain was in full-on stress mode. Was I insane? Psychofrenic? There couldn't be any other explanation. I was feeling dizzy, and so stumbled off the path and practically collapsed on a rotting log. It compressed like an earthy-smelling sponge and I put my head between my legs and focused on taking deep breaths, which wasn't easy when your brain is practically waving a flag with a picture of a flying blue, slightly humanoid cat on it, screaming, "Look at me! You're going crazy!", which wasn't exactly encouraging. I wasn't seeing the dark brown menagerie of woodchips and earth before me, pockmarked with shiny green shoots.

"Shit," I hissed to myself. "Shit shit shit shit shit." I felt as if my insides were crumpling. I'd have to tell my dad. What was I going to do? Damn it!

"Hey, you okay?" someone asked, and I instantly recognized the immature tone of Natsu. I didn't look up, but squeezed my eyes shut. If Happy was a figment of my imagination, and I could see nothing else that he _could_ be, then Natsu had to be too, right? I mean, he saw Happy too, so it would make sense.

"Wow, she looks pretty bad," Happy said, and I realized the figment must me hovering beside Natsu's head. Natsu's _figment_ of a head.

"Yeah, why'd'you think she's so pale?" Natsu asked.

Just ignore them. They'll go away. They have to.

"Well I dunno, maybe I scared her," Happy said. Well, that was true. "Remember the last time we were in Edolas? They all ran away screaming."

"Oh, yeah," said Natsu, and I could practically see him scratching his head. "Anyway, don't you think we should bring her with us? Maybe Erza knows why she smells like Earthland."

"I don't know, Natsu," Happy said, landing on the ground so that I was staring at his impossibly blue back paws. Great, he stood on two legs, too. I suppose this is the product of reading too much. "Maybe your nose isn't right this time."

"My nose is always right, okay?!" Natus raged, suddenly tensing as he yelled this fact to the entire neighbourhood. "Anyway," he continued, abruptly calm, "she's got red hair. It looks like my fire. I like her."

"And just like that," Happy said, sounding condescendingly sad. I didn't know what was just like that, because I was trying to wrap my mind around him saying "My fire." Did he carry fire around with him? Great, I had created a pyro as a brain-child.

"Hey, what's going on here?"

A new voice. Relief and panic pulsated through my veins in quick succession, both glad that someone could help me, and anxious about being found in such a lapse of mental health.

"Oh, hey man," Natsu said. "I found this girl who smells like Earthland and now she's freakin' out."

"Well no duh," the new voice said. It was a deep voice, monotone and detached. "These people haven't been connected to Earthland for thousands of years. They probably don't even remember about magic and exceeds and stuff."

"Oh come on, it can't have been that long," Natsu said dismissively. "It's only been a couple of years."

"Time passes differently here."

"Alright, alright. Well, what are we going to do with her?" Natsu asked, standing. The bushes rustled, and what I assumed to be yet another figment- this was just getting worse and worse- stepped forward. Wait, could figments make bushes rustle? I looked up, eyes probing to see if they were affecting the environment around them in any way.

The new figment was as tall and muscular as Natsu. He had his arms crossed over a bare chest, and didn't seem to be wearing anything more than boxers. His shoes seemed to be crushing the greenery beneath them, but they could have been squashed when I had crashed in here. I swallowed and looked up at his face. He had pitch black hair and I remote expression, one side of his mouth tugged down in a decidedly indifferent way.

"I'd say we should bring her back to Wendy and Erza. Are you sure she smells like Earthland?" he said, sounding like he didn't really care either way. I hoped they would just go away. Or maybe disappear in a puff of fire and smoke.

"Of course I am!" Natsu retorted. "Jeez, why is everyone being so mean to my nose?"

"Okay, then we'd better get going. Lucy and Levy will have searched their area and be heading back to base."

"Sure thing," Natsu said, and stepped forward. Somehow, I ended up tossed over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

"_Hey!_" I yelled, distressed. Figments can't manhandle you! "Put me _down!_" I drew back my knee and kicked him solidly in the stomach. I hit him solidly, but the wall of muscle limited his effectiveness, even as the surprise of it bolstered it. The breath whooshed out of him and punched me in the stomach in turn.

"Seriously? Why'd you kick me?" he demanded, but I didn't answer; I was too busy trying to see around the black polka-dots that had appeared in my field of vision.

"Natsu, calm down. She just wasn't expecting you to pick her up," Gray said. "However." Something cold and sharp pressed under my chin. Far too cold to be metal. I jerked, startled, and pain cut across my throat.

I didn't say anything, but overwhelming anxiety surged in my stomach. What the hell was happening? I couldn't put it all together.

"Don't fight. I'm not afraid to hurt a girl," Gray said. "We don't know if you come as an enemy or a friend, but you have to be one or the other if you come from Earthland."

He crouched in front of me and I saw that it was a knife of ice, growing from his hand.

And that's when I fainted.


	3. Chapter 3

**~Sorry for any grammatical or structural errors, I wrote this really late at night and I think my eyeballs might fall out or something gruesome and horrible like that XD I'll look it over in the morning. Also, sorry if it sucks.~**

When I came to, I was lying, tied up, on the ground of some place. I didn't know what 'some place' was, aside from the fact that there was grass, and it was on the top of a hill.

"Please excuse my friend's unorthodox manners," someone said. It was a woman, I could tell, and I squirmed in my bonds until I could see the speaker. She was tall and flame-haired, like me, looking regal in full armour.

"I can't say that you're much better, since I'm sitting here tied up," I mumbled, but instantly regretted the words. Disorientation had made me reckless. I didn't know what she'd do with that extremely sharp looking sword of hers.

However, I my premonition was baseless. The girl smirked slightly, making a hmph-ing noise and tilting her heads. "I suppose you're right about that," she said dryly. "Unfortunately, it can't be helped. We have no way of knowing whether you're friend or foe."

I felt like I'd slipped into a dream world. My heart felt like it was (badly) playing a drum solo all my itself in my chest, staggering and banging around, pounding incessantly. "I have no idea who you are," I stated helplessly. "Why would I be your foe?"

The woman shifted her balance from centre to her left foot, her armour clanking slightly. "That is yet to be seen," she said. "I am Erza."

_Erza_. Natsu had mentioned her earlier, I thought.

I groaned, suddenly feeling as if my head was being cleaved open with that sharp sword of Erza's, though she'd not moved. My breathing shallowed and my skin crawled, burned.

Well that escalated quickly. It might have been amusing had I not felt like I was being simultaneously burned alive and devoured by large, flesh-eating insects.

"What's wrong with her?" another voice piped up, this one younger. I curled onto my side, squeezed my eyes shut, and fell into my habit of forming senseless words with my lips as I did when I was experiencing extreme pain or distress. I thought this qualified. A face popped into my field of vision, eyes concerned.

And her hair was blue.

That's what captured my attention as she continued to talk, her face growing increasingly worried until it appeared that she was yelling. There was a flash of light and then I could see nothing, though I vaguely registered that, through the depthless agony, my bonds had been cut. The pain receded slightly, but then returned fuller than ever, and I thought I screamed. I should have screamed. The situation was definitely scream-worthy.

Once again, the pain faded, like the tide of the sea backing off. I sucked in a lungful of air. I couldn't see anything, although I heard garbled arguments and lots of yelling. I was floating in an endless sea of bright smoke, sweet acid caressing my limbs as I drifted, coarse silk sliding through my veins. What was happening to me?

It seemed like years that I lay there, each thought barely forming before it collapsed under the strain of it all, succumbing to the mindless urge to escape, always to escape.

But how can you escape when there's nothing really there at all? Nothing but the pain. That was one thing I could constantly count on, and I wasn't sure if it was keeping me sane or driving me closer to the brink of insanity.

Finally, there was relief. I felt myself settle, almost as if I was being brought back into reality or my body. Whatever it was, I blinked, distinguishing shapes. It was hard, however, to make out anything past the blinding glow of light that seemed to explode from somewhere near me. I cried out at its brightness, throwing my hands in front of my face as if to shield myself, but that didn't help. I squeezed my eyes shut as it dimmed. Slowly, I became aware that I was sitting in a vehicle. It had horrible shock absorbers, whatever it was, and I was being thrown around quite a lot. I was lying on a hard surface, long enough that my entire body stretched it's length before meeting a wall.

Finally, the light dimmed enough that I dared to open my eyes.

I felt great.

That omnipresent feeling of unbelonging had disappeared, as had that itch that seemed to crawl through my veins. The pain had totally disappeared. I was so amazed that I laughed. My body felt coordinated; it felt _right_. Is this how one was supposed to feel?

I sat up (wow, it was even semi-graceful), and looked down at myself.

I stared. _I_ was glowing. It had faded to the brightness of a distant dying star, but it was still straining to stare even at my hand for too long. Even though my body felt better than ever before, I felt like I might spontaneously combust if I didn't understand what was going on real soon.

"Oh look at that, you're awake."

I knew that voice. It was the deep, baritone voice I had heard in the woods… Wow that seemed so long ago. I wondered how long it had been. I couldn't remember the name of the guy, so I tried to focus on him. Let me tell you: _Not_ easy when your face is glowing as much as the rest of you.

"Who are you?" I asked to start with. My questions just seemed too large, too spectacularly unreal to be phrased, so I settled on something safe.

"Gray Fullbuster," the voice said, and I nodded, spotting a shock of black hair.

_Oh yeah,_ I thought, _you're the one who held a knife of ice to my throat._

I thought about asking him about that, but I wasn't sure how exactly to ask something of that… that level of weirdness. So I settled for giving him a glare for holding me at knife point, but looked away quickly to stare around my surroundings. The more the glow of my skin faded, the better I felt.

"I should probably tell Wendy you're awake," Gray said. I could make out more of his face now, as the explosion of light continued to fade. He stood, and I tried to figure out where the hell I was.

"What are we in?" I asked quickly, before he could leave.

"This is a carriage," Gray said flatly, as if I was an idiot not to have figured this out myself. Without another word, he pushed open what I assumed to be a window, but couldn't really see, and flipped out.

While moving? Where was he going?

I let out a big breath of air and leaned back against my seat. I was hopelessly lost right now. The best I could do was relax and roll with it, even thought I felt like my insides were quite effectively being transmuted into jelly.


End file.
